Short answer: tracking one prompt on 4 AI engines costs $0.011 by scraping and $0.148 through the API. I measured both on 2026-10-28. Your monthly bill is that cost × your prompts × how often they run.
- Under 50 prompts: AEO Copilot Managed, $9 a month.
- 50 to about 400 prompts a week: AEO Copilot BYOK with Querying.ai, about $24 to $31 a month.
- Above 410 prompts a week: compare AEO Copilot Managed Agency ($99) with Querying.ai's $200 plan.
> People should control exactly how much their tracking costs, instead of paying for a big tool's acquisition costs.
> Sofian Bettayeb, AEO Copilot Founder
5 terms I use in this post:
- Prompt: one question you track, like "What is the best project tool for a startup?".
- Engine: one AI that answers it: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini or Google's AI Overview.
- Run: asking all your prompts once. Weekly tracking is 4.33 runs a month.
- The API: software asks the AI model directly, through the official access its maker sells. You pay per answer. OpenRouter works this way.
- Scraping: a program uses the app like a person and copies what shows on screen. You pay in credits. Querying.ai works this way.
What does one prompt cost?
It depends on how the answers are collected. I measured the API and scraping on the same 12 prompts, and compared them with AEO Copilot Managed.
Through the API, engine by engine
OpenRouter reports the exact cost of each answer. I ran 12 prompts on 4 engines with web search on, with the same settings AEO Copilot uses.
ChatGPT alone is 40% of the bill (method). Web search makes it expensive: the pages it reads are billed too. Perplexity costs about a ninth of ChatGPT.
Through scraping
Querying.ai charges credits per answer, whatever its length (pricing, read 2026-10-28):
My test used exactly 54 credits for 12 prompts. What that costs depends on your plan:
Through AEO Copilot Managed
With AEO Copilot Managed you pay one plan and I run the engines on my keys. To compare, divide the plan price by the prompt runs it covers each month, at full use, weekly, on 4 engines:
That puts AEO Copilot Managed between scraping ($0.011) and the API ($0.148), with nothing to set up. Use fewer prompts than your plan allows and your real cost per prompt goes up. The free plan tracks 50 prompts on ChatGPT and Claude for $0.
What this means for you
- Scraping is about 13 times cheaper per prompt than the API (method). Part of that gap is the engine mix: the API run includes Claude, one of the 2 most expensive engines, and scraping can't track Claude at all. Pick the API for other reasons: Claude, official access, your own key.
- On the API, ChatGPT drives the bill. Dropping it cuts the cost by 40%. Dropping Perplexity barely changes anything.
- Don't budget from a handful of answers. From 2 answers per engine I estimated $0.20 per prompt. 12 answers gave $0.148.
What sets your monthly bill?
3 numbers: prompts × engines × runs per month.
> You need to be careful with the cost. It moves with many factors: how often your prompts run, how many prompts you track, and how many engines you ask.
> Sofian Bettayeb, AEO Copilot Founder
What this means for you
- Track only the engines your buyers use. Each one you drop is money back.
- Run monthly unless your rankings move every week. It's the biggest lever on your bill.
- Add prompts in batches you can afford. Cost grows in a straight line with them.
How much will you pay each month?
Here is the full monthly cost at 4 volumes, 4 engines per prompt. The BYOK totals include my BYOK plan at its yearly price divided by 12: Solo $4.08 (up to 150 prompts), Pro $10.75 (750), Team $20.75 (2,000).
The jump at 410 prompts a week
Querying.ai's $20 plan gives 8,000 credits a month. That covers about 410 prompts a week, or about 1,770 a month, on 4 engines. The next plan is $200, with nothing in between.
At 600 prompts a week, that flips the math: AEO Copilot Managed Agency costs $99 a month, BYOK with Querying.ai about $211.
The API has no jump
OpenRouter grows in a straight line. Above about 150 prompts a week, it's the most expensive option. You pay that for Claude, official access and your own key. I explain those trade-offs in BYOK AI search tracking: API or live scraping?.
Costs the tables don't show
- BYOK plans are billed yearly. You pay $49, $129 or $249 upfront. The tables spread it over 12 months.
- Querying.ai's $20 plan has no top-ups. Top-ups start on its Max plan. If you run out of credits mid-month, your runs stop until the next month, or you move up to the $200 plan.
- OpenRouter is prepaid. You buy credits first, with a 5.5% fee and an $0.80 minimum per top-up (OpenRouter FAQ). When the credits run out, runs stop until you top up.
What this means for you
- Stay under 410 prompts a week, or 1,770 a month, to keep Querying.ai at $20.
- Between 410 and 600 prompts a week, AEO Copilot Managed Agency is cheaper than BYOK with Querying.ai.
- Choose the API for what it gives you, not for price. Above 150 prompts a week, it costs the most.
Which setup is cheapest for you?
!Monthly cost by prompts per week: Querying.ai jumps from $31 to $211 at 410 prompts a week; Managed is cheaper between 410 and 600; OpenRouter rises in a straight line.
What this means for you
- Find your setup in the table above. Count how many prompts you track and how often they run, then find that line: it gives you the cheapest setup and its monthly cost.
- Try before you pay. Querying.ai's free plan gives 500 credits once, about 110 prompt runs on 4 engines.
- Check again when you add prompts. Crossing 410 a week changes the cheapest option.
How AEO Copilot compares with Peec, Otterly, Semrush, Profound and Ahrefs
Each tool's entry plan, from its own pricing page, read on 2026-10-30. Run frequency differs, so I show 2 numbers: the price per tracked prompt each month, and the price per AI answer.
Sources: Otterly, Peec, Semrush, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Profound. Semrush's plan includes its full SEO suite. Ahrefs' per-answer figure uses its 2,500 checks a month. Otterly charges extra for Claude and Gemini. For features beyond price, see the best AEO tools, compared.
Why AEO Copilot is the cheapest
Per tracked prompt, AEO Copilot costs about a tenth of Otterly and Peec. Per AI answer, it's still the lowest of the 6. I keep it that way on purpose: one flat plan, 4 engines included, no add-ons, and a free plan to start.
The trade-off is frequency. AEO Copilot runs weekly, the others daily. If you need daily tracking, the others give you more answers for the money. If weekly is enough, and for most brands it is, you pay far less.
What this means for you
- Compare price per prompt, not the plan price. A $29 plan with 15 prompts costs more per prompt than a $99 plan with 600.
- Ask yourself if you need daily runs. That's what you pay for with the other tools.
- Check what's an add-on. Claude or Gemini can double the price of an entry plan.
The takeaway: know your 3 numbers before you pick a plan
What you pay is prompts × engines × runs per month. A tool's starting price tells you none of that.
- One prompt on 4 engines costs $0.011 by scraping and $0.148 through the API. That gap decides most bills.
- Under 50 prompts, AEO Copilot Managed at $9 is the cheapest. Nothing to set up.
- From 50 to about 400 prompts a week, AEO Copilot BYOK with Querying.ai is the cheapest, at about $24 to $31 a month.
- Above 410 prompts a week, Querying.ai jumps from $20 to $200. Compare it with AEO Copilot Managed Agency ($99, up to 600 prompts) before you go further.
- Running monthly instead of weekly makes 4 times fewer runs. At 750 prompts on Querying.ai, that's $31 a month instead of $211. If your rankings don't move weekly, don't pay for weekly.
To choose between the API and scraping for reasons other than price, read BYOK AI search tracking: API or live scraping?.
Frequently asked questions
How much does AI search tracking cost per month?
It depends on prompts, engines and how often they run. For 150 prompts on 4 engines, run weekly, it's about $24 a month with AEO Copilot BYOK and Querying.ai, $34 with AEO Copilot Managed, and about $100 through the OpenRouter API. Entry plans of other tools run from $29 to $199 a month for 15 to 83 prompts.
What is the cheapest AI search tracking tool?
Of the tools compared here, AEO Copilot: $9 a month for 50 prompts on 4 engines, or $0 for ChatGPT and Claude on the free plan. Above 50 prompts, AEO Copilot BYOK with Querying.ai has the lowest cost per prompt.
Why do other AI visibility tools cost more?
They mostly run daily instead of weekly, and they charge extra for some engines. Otterly's Lite plan adds $29 a month for Claude. Daily runs give you 7 times more answers, and you pay for them.
Is weekly AI search tracking enough?
For most brands, yes. You act on trends across weeks, not on one day's answer. Daily runs make sense when you need to catch fast changes, like during a launch or a crisis.
How I measured these costs
- Date: 2026-10-28, on Notion's 12 tracked prompts.
- API costs: the average of 12 answers per engine through OpenRouter. Settings: web search context "low", a 3,000-token cap, Gemini Flash-Lite instead of Flash. Other settings or longer answers cost more, and model prices change.
- Scraping costs: the same 12 prompts on 4 engines through Querying.ai: 48 answers, 54 credits.
- Fees and plans: OpenRouter charges 5.5% on card top-ups, with an $0.80 minimum (OpenRouter FAQ). Querying.ai and OpenRouter prices were read on 2026-10-28, other tools' prices on 2026-10-30.
I make AEO Copilot and sell the BYOK plans. Weigh my view accordingly.
Where to go next
Start for $0. Track ChatGPT and Claude on the free plan, or see the BYOK plans if you track more than 50 prompts.